As NASA begat Tang, Dean begets social software: Zack Rosen, who helped create Deanspace, has just set up a new venture to bring the power of groupware to nonprofits and such with software and help. Dan Gillmor reports, quoting Zack (the nephew of proud uncle Jay, by the way):

We want to create a much cheaper, open, and powerful option for these kinds of services. The goal is to have a full-time development shop that spearheads projects inside open-source communities working on the applications these organizations need, and a consulting firm that can support the toolsets. This is a much more efficient and productive way to do this kind of development.

This is great. The possibilities for this are endless — and international.